Master's Jester
by MegKF
Summary: An alternate "Sound of Drums" The remains of Torchwood are brought before The Master on The Valiant and Ianto reveals some of his secrets as Jack and The Doctor watch.


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 **Master's Jester**

Jack struggled as he saw who The Master had brought up from the surface to be tortured next. The Master smirked as Jack strained against the chains binding him. He chuckled as the two new prisoners were forced to their knees before him by his UNIT grunts.

Ianto glared up at The Master. He didn't even glance at his lover/boss. His eyes drilled holes, metaphorically unfortunately, at the Time Lord in front of him. The Welshman was equally sure not to do anything to draw the attention away from himself. He knew that letting this enemy stop focusing on him would likely get Tosh killed. The Toclafane had already taken Gwen and Owen away. 'Harold Saxon' had arranged for Torchwood to be off in the Himalayas during his hostile take over of the world, but that hadn't stopped him from later hunting them down. Gwen had sacrificed herself to save the others only for Owen to die two months later. He had however saved dozens of lives during that time before dying leading the floating balls of death away from what was a hidden base.

"We found them trying to pick up medicine supplies in Belgium," one of the Toclafane announced sounding like a pet wanting praise from it's owner.

"Oh!" The Master drew out the sound an extra couple beats before grinning. "Torchwood employees! There aren't too many of those around anymore, are there Jack?"

The Master spun around to face the glaring Jack. "You two are like matched pairs aren't you? Glaring at me the same way, as if it would change anything."

He spun back around, ignoring Jack. He rushed cheerfully over to the newcomers, grabbing Ianto's chin with one hand and twisting his face up, one way then another, inspecting him.

"You're pretty special aren't you? Ianto right? You don't mind if I call you Ianto, none of that Mr. Jones thing. It's so old fashioned. The two of us are going to get to know each other much better before you die."

Ianto let out a short laughing huff, "You don't even remember do you?"

"Remember what?" The Master squatted down a little in front of him, releasing his face.

"That we've met before? I wonder how long it's been to you? I guess that's the problem with long lived time travelers. Never know how long it's been to them."

"Hm? You think we've met before? Tell me about it," The Master grinned wondering what kind of story the man before him was going to come up with to delay the inevitable.

"Six years ago. My mother had something that belonged to you, she had taken it from you and it had driven her mad, she spent the last 8 years of her life in Providence Park, a mental hospital. Before she died she gave it to me. She made me promise not to give it to you, but I did."

The Master stood up and twirled around, amused by the story so far. He sat down in his comfortable chair, one leg casually thrown over it swinging gently. "Keep going," he encouraged Ianto.

Ianto rose from this own position on the floor, a casual wave of the Master's hands kept his pets from unleashing there weapons on him, an unarmed office worker didn't scare him, especially with his hands trapped behind him. Tosh remained kneeling, almost forgotten beside him, looking on, flashbacks of cannibals flashing through her mind. Jack had also stopped his struggles, trying to harness his strength to fight while Ianto kept him distracted.

"You see I felt pity for you," Ianto continued as he started walking, following The Master's earlier path. "I didn't really understand. I just knew that without it you wouldn't get better. I was so young and naive then. I gave it to you. You laughed and laughed, and then you left. Like it was nothing. I suppose Jack won't remember me in a thousand years, if you don't."

The Master laughed, "I've never had a male lover, nor any desire to have one."

Ianto leaned in close, "I wasn't your lover. I never had a desire for a male lover until I met Jack. No, our relationship was something else entirely. Something that I would think you wouldn't forget easily. But maybe I meant that little to you. Tad."

All expression left The Master's face as he stared at the man in front of him before laughing. "Time Lords don't have children easily, and I assure you I have none. But that was amusing. Maybe I'll keep you as a sort of jester!"

"You weren't a Time Lord then. The device I had made you human. The irony of it all is that my sister gave me a hard time about how I never visited you in the hospital, but how could I tell her that our 'Father', who had been on the brink of death, turned into another species right in front of me when I did visit, did a little speech about being The Master, a Time Lord, and then ran off into the night. She had an empty casket buried since your body couldn't be found and your doctor said you were on your last moments."

All the humans and Time Lords stared at Ianto.

"Ianto?" The Master stared in horror as he remembered the first time he'd used a Chameleon Arch, at the end of his second regeneration. He'd attempted it to see if it would get rid of the drums, although it did nothing more than muffle them. He'd made plans to ensure that he'd open the Arch and return to normal a week later only to have it stolen by the beautiful Welshwoman he'd eventually marry. He'd ended up stuck as a clerk in a department store with two kids for 25 years before his son, HIS SON, had returned him to himself. But his human self had been on the brink of death, his liver failing, caused by a lot of drinking, which had forced him to regenerate, thankfully his TARDIS had been left safely refueling from the rift during the whole ordeal. He'd returned to Gallifrey to recuperate and then, and then, he couldn't remember. The drums pounded louder and louder.

"QUIET!" The Master yelled jumping to his feet. The sudden movement caused Ianto to fall back. With his hands immobilized he couldn't brace himself properly and landed with a sickening thud on his side.

"Ianto!" Jack shouted as he watched his lover land on the floor.

The Toclafane taking that as their queue pulled out their weapons intent on killing this man who had upset their master.

"Stop!" The Master ordered as he knelt down next to his son, his son. He couldn't stop himself from repeating it every time he thought it. How had he forgotten that he had a son? He'd fully planned to go back and check on his kids, and grandchildren(!) when he'd left but had completely forgotten about them. Instead he'd started researching something, something about temporal waves and paradoxes. Why? He clutched his head, moving to where Ianto lay bleeding on the floor.

The Master hadn't lived such a long life without knowing something about human medicine and between fighting through the pain in his head he shifted Ianto around slightly, recognizing he had a dislocated shoulder and had a gash on his head where it had hit the floor. He was also unconscious, which made it easy to force his shoulder back into place.

Jack renewed his struggled to be freed as he watched the madman in front of him carefully settle Ianto's head in his lap. The Master gently tucked Ianto's hair back behind his ears. One hand caressing his son's hair while the other continued to clutch his own head.

Why? Why? Why? The Master kept thinking to himself. He ignored the actions of the other around him. The two UNIT guards just stood there throughout the whole thing, the time on the Valiant had not really healthy for their minds. The others were elsewhere, not really enjoying being around when he would kill Jack over and over again. The Toclafane hovered not knowing what they were supposed to do. The Doctor sat in his cage, pondering what this meant. Was Ianto like his granddaughter Susan? Like the children he could have had when he himself used the Chameleon Arch? For the first time he considered speaking since he'd been imprisoned.

The Doctor was right in that Ianto was a little like Susan. She too had been the child of a Time Lord using a Chameleon Arch, although this had been the Doctor's son, sadly he'd had no interest in his human child once his memory had returned and then her mother had passed away leading to The Doctor raising her.

Like her, Ianto had latent telepathic abilities. Torchwood One had been really interested in it after he'd been recruited by them. He'd been trying to find out what Time Lords were since his father had apparently been one when he garnered their attention in his search. Perhaps if things had been different UNIT would have found him first. He'd been very honest when he'd been interviewed by Torchwood. Every word he'd told them had been the truth, he'd met a being calling himself a Time Lord named the Master and he was responsible for his father disappearing. He just wanted to know what that meant. The fact that this being and his father were one and the same must have just 'slipped' his mind during his time at Torchwood. They of course knew of him due to their own research into The Doctor.

Ianto's telepathy wasn't very strong, leaning more towards his own mind than others. His training had resulted in an almost eidetic memory. His father's touch was having odd side effects. The direct touch between them was causing their minds to overlap. Ianto's unconscious and The Master's subconscious interacted in a way that no one had even thought about much less experienced. The son's mind healing that of his father's, organizing it in a different way, not the efficient way that they do on Gallifrey but the way Ianto had figured out for himself. Suddenly things were being moved about and revealed, The Master was understanding things that had never made sense. The drums were fading as his mind started to recognize them as not being natural to him. The Master didn't know his own motivation anymore. Yes he didn't want to die, and yes he liked power, but what he was doing was something he himself knew was wrong. Was it something the Drums had made him do or was it something else? Family used to be so important to him, even after the drums had started he'd still loved his mother and brother. Perhaps if he and his brother hadn't gone on such separate paths he could have continued to fight the drums.

The Master looked up at The Doctor sitting in his cage, tears blurring his vision, "Brother?"

The Doctor watched shocked, his brother hadn't acknowledged this connection since they were children. He hadn't even seen him for centuries before they'd met again when The Master had been on his 12th regeneration.

"Rassilon!" The Master shouted as things started to come together. He clutched his son to him before turning to the UNIT guards, "Go get a doctor, a human doctor!"

He might not know everything but he knew enough now. When he'd returned to Gallifrey after regenerating he'd spoken to his mother, then Rassilon had come and spoken to him after that, he had done something, had somehow made the drums even louder, drowning out his memories of his human family. He remembered his mother had cried. Family was important, it had been what made his first self the most stable of his many lives.

He stayed still as he waited for his order to be fulfilled. Soon his son would be alright and then he'd make this world whatever he wanted.

 **END?**

 _Author's Note:_

 _This story came to me a couple nights ago and I had to write it. Stayed up until 2am typing, I think I do some of my best writing when I'm fighting sleep. I'm making some assumptions on Susan since I don't think it's ever explained how she, a human, is The Doctor's granddaughter. I'm not making assumptions on The Master and The Doctor being brothers. It was originally planned to be revealed in Original/Old Who that they were brothers but I think the actor playing The Master got sick and the story line got dropped. Something like that. Though it does make the Missy story line in Current/New Who really odd..._

 _Should I write more or just end it here? I lost all motivation for this story once I woke up._


End file.
